Captive Audience and an Equal Match
by GleefullyLovely
Summary: A different ending to 2018 The Basement, spoilers ahead! Rated T for language and talk of torture and murder. I own nothing.


"No, no, no!" Screamed the bound man before him, British accent catching in his throat. Writhing body trapped just below the lit blow torch set to decapitate him alive "Don't do this, please!"

Normally, when his victims whined and pleaded, it drove him crazy, far crazier than all the varieties of personas he was acting to be.

"Please!" Begged the hostage, left hand tingling and Craig being extra careful to avoid contact against his three fingerless digits that the kidnapper had savagely cut off.

But, ever since he'd kidnapped Craig Owen, everything had changed. He'd never hesitated till now. The others he'd painstakingly chosen to die, but Craig? Killing him wasn't right. His heart honestly wasn't in this kill, had it ever been to begin with.

_"I want you to kill my husband," _Those had been his twin sisters words. After the blonde discovered the man's affairs and found out his own deadly secret, she'd seeked him out. Craig's very own wife had orchestrated the man's brutal abduction and demise.

"Why are you doing this?" Asked Craig, the brunette couldn't wrap his mind around his current situation. "What have I ever done to you?"

The killer inside ignored the intended victim as he became lost in his own thoughts. He was the killer here, not Kelly, why did she get free rein over who lived or died? Only he himself was the Gemini Killer, not her. He picks out his victims, no one ordered him on whom to take.

"Please! Please, I don't wanna die!" Craig's desperate cries played in the background as if in a time loop and were growing in intensity.

He honestly didn't want him to either, but what other choice did he have? Kelly knows his secret and will blab to the cops if he doesn't fulfill his sisters wish of killing the man.

"I DON'T WANNA DIE, BILL!" This was Craig's last stand and the man knew that whatever was said here may change the final outcome. "MOM! PLEASE, HELP ME!"

It took all the strength he had to suppress the urge to untie the ropes as the man begged for his blonde female personality, the one who'd slipped him the file earlier that cut the coarse ropes. The hand holding the blow torch now starting to quiver and shake.

"I WANT TO LIVE!"

The famous musicians life was over, even if he somehow miraculously had escaped on his own, Kelly would have murdered him herself. Craig no longer had any career as a guitarist either, but so long as he remained firmly in the dark regarding his loving wife, he'd fight to return to her side.

"KELLY! BABY, PLEASE, OH GOD!"

In his goodbye message to her, Craig showed guilt and remorse. He truly was sorry for his sins of sleeping with her best friend. Upon inspection of his phone, Kelly's friends number had been recently deleted.

"Are you really sorry, Bill?" He knew his victims name was Craig. he'd used his own instead as a way to get under his victims skin and put themselves in his own shoes.

"YES! GOD, YES! I'M FUCKING SORRY!"

He'd struck him within seconds, just as before when he played the part of the clown and detective "Language,"

Craig's head painfully snapped to his right from the hit, aggravating his two gum sockets of broken teeth "I'm sorry ... I won't ... Swear, again."

"See that you don't" he threatens, face now up close and personal "Or I will hit you again and again and again."

Craig eagerly nods his head, the man pulling backwards and away from the killers menacing stare "I won't, I won't! Just, please, let me go!"

This man has done what all the other seven had failed to do, he'd truly repented. Yes, he'd mocked him in several of his false identities, created lies using his own fabrications, but he'd also been truthful at times too.

"Don't do this ... You don't have to do this," Speaks Craig tired and defeatedly, head hanging loosely.

I wish I didn't have too ... You're a good man, Craig Owen. He could already visualize the scene of the murder. All he'd have to do was lower the torch and hold the captives head steady and in place as the torch burned away at the skin, muscle, tissue, veins and bones.

He hadn't realized he'd lifted the torch until Craig's panicked voice erupted in his ear drums full force "PLEASE, DON'T DO THIS TO ME!"

Sweat trickled down his brow as the white hot heat started to burn and singe his hand.

"BILL, PLEASE!" Craig began to dry heave, fear radiating and clearly showing through out his desperately struggling form "HELP! SOMEONE, HELP ME!"

Bill's sky blue eyes clenched beneath the mask, watery tears cascaded down his face as he loses his grip on the blow torch. The torture weapon narrowly missing his black executioners outfit as it clattered against the harsh cement.

"What is it about you?" He yells in fury, hands grabbing Craig's face much like his jail prisoner act had done.

Craig in turn, tilted his head to the left in confusion, breath raspy and scratchy "What?"

I ... I-" Bill's head began to hurt, world starting to spin, what was he doing? This kill should be easy "I can't!"

Craig jumps as the man kicks the torch away, literally trapped as his killer breaks-down "I don't underst-"

"I can't and I don't want to!" Bill grabbed and pulled on his brown roots of hair, head turning back and fourth as he starts to spiral. Why am I doing this? Cause Kelly said too? Why should I listen to her? Question after question ringing inside his mind.

"What are you talking about?" Expressed a perplexed Craig, deep down the man holding out hope of getting out of this mess alive.

"I can't and I don't want to!" The serial killer repeated once more, grip on the hostage increasing.

"Ow! Fuck, then don't," Declares a pained Craig

The abductee is silenced by the resonating and harsh slap given to his cheek in response to the provocative word he'd used.

Yes, Bill had an urge to commit the crime, but he just couldn't bring himself to move towards it. Instead, he seemed to be gravitating towards the lone roll of silver duct tape as he released his hold of the man's face.

"What-" Speaks Craig shakily, blood spitting from his mouth "What are you doing?"

That was a good question, for even he didn't know the answer to that himself. Before he knew it, he'd already ripped the edge of the tape loose, long strip now held taut in his hand.

"No, no, please!" Screamed Craig as the killer drew closer. There was no doubt in his mind of what the man intended to be done "Oh, god! Someone, help me!"

He walked behind the crying man, giving a light smack to the back of his head "Shut your mouth,"

Only this time instead of confusion, Craig became terrified, the man no longer playing along "Please! You don't have to do this, I'm a good man! God, have mercy!"

Bill paid the pleas no mind, he'd heard them all before "Close it,"

"No!" Craig attempted to fight, flinging his head in any direction possible, wrists and ankles pulling at the restraints "No, wait, stop!-mmmpphh!"

The dreaded sound of the tape stretching from the roll, Craig's muffled screams and the still going blow torch was all that echoed through out the lone, dark basement.

"I can't and I-"

Craig Owen was different than the others. Bill had come to a decision all his own regarding the man before him as he wound the adhesive around his head and over his lips.

"I don't want to kill you!"

He didn't stop after two wraps like before, keeping Craig quiet long enough to get rid of a pizza guy was no longer the intended goal. No, this time was different. He could feel Craig's tears as he continued the process, making sure to pull the tape extra tight this time around.

"HLLLPPP EEE!"

This time he hadn't chosen the intended victim, he'd been told who to take. Effectively blackmailed by his own sister into doing her dirty work.

"PLLLLSSS, STTTPPP!"

He'd lost count on how many wraps he'd done, hand still continuing with the motion. But, he had to do this, it was the only way.

"BLLLLL!"

Quickly and with a mask of in difference, he finally bit off the tape from the roll. Smoothing and pulling the stretchy gag before helping seal the glue.

"Congratulations, Craig Owen. You have changed my mind. Your execution has been overruled, you have been granted mercy."

After a playful tussle of the man's brown locks, Bill makes his exit. He had some work to do. He ignored Craig's muffled and slurred questions as he shut the basement door "Time to get to work."

He needed a full proof plan if he wanted to pull this off. Kelly wanted Craig dead, but he himself, the Gemini killer, didn't.

"I'll start combing the streets before I go see Kelly. Find a lookalike, kill him and tell her the news that her husbands dead." Really, Craig would be very much alive. For the man would be tied to a desk by his hands, legs wrapped in woven ropes knotted in the chain links holding down the chair he currently sat upon.

"She'll never know, Kelly will get her money and that will be the end of it." Never mind another would have to take Craig's place, another would have to die by his hand.

"People are merely toys to be played with,"

Keys in hand, Bill made his way outside, securely locking the dead bolt in his descent. Why he's chosen to keep Craig Owen alive and his prisoner was beyond his own comprehension.

"Ears and eyes to practice my routines upon and nothing more."

The others he'd killed with glee, yet, he hadn't enjoyed the torture with Craig so much as the man equaling the playing field. Bill's breath hitched at the memory of Craig having a full conversation with one of his many personalities, he'd truly been caught completely off guard.

_"What about my insanity plea?"_ Craig had spoken to his fake attorney_ "I thought that was how you were going to get me off? Clearly, I'm insane." _

Craig had acted along to certain scenarios, even used some to his own advantage. None of the others had remotely tried to understand him in such a way, they'd all merely stayed to the fact rather than see the fiction.

"They didn't challenge my skills or make me care. None of them earned the right to view my show, nor to continuously live a life they didn't deserve." But, Craig? He was more like a rival to one day best in competition. Someone he enjoyed having around and talking too. The only man he felt to have become far more than just a simple spectator, an actor in his performances.

"I'm keeping him," Bill didn't know why, he didn't understand it. "He's earned his place, the only one truly worthy."

And until he grew bored of the man. He'd remain as his rightful captive audience, his equal match. Craig Owen would not be leaving the basement.

**So, I just finished this movie and I honestly loved it and had to immediately write my own little ending. Hope you all enjoyed reading, till next time! **


End file.
